Blaire Fleming Blaire Fleming (born February 17, 2002) was a volleyball player for the
San Jose State Spartans in
California, with her role being as an outside hitter meant to deliver spikes that opponents couldn't return (known as "kills"). After drawing the attention of college recruiters, Fleming was up front with all the colleges she visited about being transgender, and eventually accepted a scholarship to play volleyball for the
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in
South Carolina beginning in 2020. However, after not fitting in by the end of her freshman year, she withdrew and returned home to Virginia to train with her old club, before accepting a scholarship from
San Jose State University (SJSU) in 2022; and while she told the Coach
Trent Kersten that she was trans, she decided this time to wait until she knew her teammates better to tell them individually. A few players, however, had reportedly found out from staff that Fleming was transgender, leading to occasional rumors.
Brooke Slusser Brooke Slusser (born January 9, 2003) was another volleyball player at SJSU, who had transferred to the school in 2023 from the
University of Alabama. Prior to that, she had been an
All-American high school volleyball player in
Denton, Texas, and had grown up in a Christian conservative household, with her biggest dream in life being to have children. In need of a place to live after transferring, she was recommended by Coach Todd Kress to move into an apartment with a group of three other players on the women's volleyball team, one of whom was Fleming. The four quickly formed a close friend group, often throwing parties together; and Slusser and Fleming quickly reached the point where Slusser would share deep personal secrets with Fleming, and the two would regularly share a room when going to play away games.
Legal environment While restrictions imposed on the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) by the
second Trump administration have since
banned trans women from women's sports, at the time Fleming played, it was still allowed under a 2011 NCAA policy for trans women to compete in women's sporting events provided they completed one year of
testosterone suppression. This became more strict however in the early 2020s amid the rise of
the anti-trans movement, with the criteria for trans women participation becoming stricter and stricter amidst the rise of figures like
Riley Gaines. As of December 2024, there were "less than 10" transgender athletes out of the NCAA's 500,000, according to NCAA President
Charlie Baker. At the time, transgender women still received non-discrimination protections under
Title IX of the
Civil Rights Act, however those protections allowed for exceptions to be made in the case of sports participation. == Initial incident ==